Archives

  • Wendell Potter, Nation On the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It (w/Nick Penniman)/Center for Public Integrity/Center for Media and Democracy, joins Thom. The United States of America is now - for lack of a better word - the best democracy money can buy. Billionaire oligarchs like the Koch Brothers now outspend political parties - members of congress spend most of their day begging for donations instead of writing new laws - and lobbyists make millions and billions selling access to the commons. Needless to say - this is not the world our founding fathers envisioned when the declared a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." We are now - as my guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds has titled his new book - A "Nation on the Take." So how did we get to this point? And how can we reform our campaign finance system to reclaim the democratic institutions our founders created?

    For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!


  • Congressman Keith Ellison(D-MN, 5th District) / Author of the new book, My Country 'Tis of Thee: My Faith, My Family, Our Future joins Thom Hartmann.


  • Climate change is the greatest threat our planet has ever faced - and we need to take action now to prevent the situation from getting any worse. But will there ever be enough political will to put the policies in place that are needed to save the future of the only planet we can call home? We'll ask William Becker - Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project - in tonight's special Conversations with Great Minds


  • Susan Jacoby, Journalist/Author, "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism," and most recently, "Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age" is tonight's Greatest Mind. Forty years ago - very few politicians flaunted their religious beliefs for personal gain. So what's changed - and what's given rise to the Christian Right in American politics? Her latest piece is - How The Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation.


  • Professor Harvey Kaye, the historian and author of Thomas Paine and The Promise of America talks about "the greatest radical of a radical age" and more.


  • The United States has spent tens of billions of dollars on reconstruction in Iraq - but it might surprise you to find out what some of that money is really going towards. In tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - Thom talks with State Department veteran Peter van Buren about our government's bungled attempts to re-build a post-war Iraq. His new book is We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.


  • Professor Harvey Kaye, The Fight For The Four Freedoms: What Made FDR And The Greatest Generation Truly Great/University of Wisconsin at Green Bay joins Thom. Seventy-Five years ago next week - FDR gave one of his most important public addresses - the so-called Four Freedoms speech. What lessons does that speech hold for us today - in 2015?

    For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!


  • Thom's guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is award-winning historian Steve Fraser. Currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University - Steve is one of America's leading labor historians and is the co-founder - along with Tom Engelhardt - of the American Empire Project books series. Steve is also the editor-at-large of the journal New Labor Forum and is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books - including his latest -"The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power" - a fascinating look at America's new Gilded Age. From the Sons of Liberty to the Wobblies - America has always been a revolutionary country. So why with wealth inequality at record highs does it now seem like everyday Americans are terrified of taking on the powers that be?


  • Kurt Eichenwald, Vanity Fair, former reporter-NY Times. His new book is 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. Over the last 11 years - it's been a question asked hundreds of times: Could 9/11 have been prevented if the Bush Adminstration had acted on the intelligence they had at the time. Of course - 9/11 did happen - and Bush took us to war with Iraq shortly thereafter. What was the planning for the Iraq war really like inside the White House - and what roles did the United States' closest allies play in it? We'll ask investigative journalist Kurt Eichenwald in a special edition of Conversations with Great Minds


  • Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute & Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists, join Thom Hartmann. Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute & Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, Union of Concerned Scientists join Thom Hartmann. The warming of the climate is unequivocal. That's one of the major findings of a new report put out by the United Nation's International Panel on Climate Change. The report - released every six years - is the most comprehensive report on climate change and global warming. This year's report - worked on by over 800 authors from dozens of countries - won't be released in full until Monday - but the summary for policymakers was released earlier today - and it highlights the report's key findings. Among them - man-made climate change is near certain - and climate change is already effecting extreme and severe weather events across the globe.


  • Bob Edgar joins Thom Hartmann tonight for Conversations with Great Minds. He has an extraordinary resume: author, pastor, former Congressman and CEO of the non-profit organization "Common Cause." We'll discuss his time in office and the issues he's now taking on of war, peace, and the corruption of the Supreme Court.


  • For tonight's Conversations with Great Minds - Thom is joined by Michael W. Hudson. Mike is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and was also an investigator for the Center for Responsible Lending. His writing has appeared in the publications like Forbes Magazine - the New York Times and Mother Jones. And much of that writing has been devoted to the foreclosure and mortgage crisis still plaguing the nation today - as well as the corruption in the big banks on Wall Street that underlie our current financial crisis. Mike is widely recognized for his work - and has been awarded the George Polk Award for magazine reporting - the John Hancock Award for business journalism and has received multiple accolades from the National Press Club and American Bar Association, among others. Currently - Mike is a Business and Finance writer with The Center for Public Integrity - and is the author of the book, "The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers.


  • Sarah Jaffe, NECESSARY TROUBLE: Americans in Revolt/Nation Institute/Belabored Podcast/Dissent Magazine joins Thom. When Bernie Sanders emerged earlier this year as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination - many mainstream pundits were caught off guard. They simply could not understand how a self-described socialist was close to beating Hillary Clinton. Well - they couldn't understand because they hadn't been paying attention. Contrary to what the talking heads on cable news thought - Bernie's campaign wasn't some kind of magical explosion of populism. It was an extension of the surge in political activism that has emerged out of the 2008 financial crisis - a phenomenon that has seen Americans of all races taking to streets in a way we haven't seen in decades. My next guest has written about this movement in depth - and has traveled across the country to learn from the leaders of this new era in American activism. Joining me now for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is journalist Sarah Jaffe - author of the new book "Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt." Sarah is also a Fellow at the Nation Institute and the Host of the "Belabored" Podcast for Dissent Magazine.

    For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!


  • Thom Hartmann is joined by author and journalist Anthony Summers. His newest book examines the many conspiracy theories surrounding the terrorist attack of 9/11 and offers close examinations of document and evidences that had been held from the public. His newest book is The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden By Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan


  • Journalist/Author Max Blumenthal, The 51 Day War-Ruin and Resistance in Gaza/Alternet joins Thom. My guest for tonight's Conversations with Great Minds is award-winning journalist and author Max Blumenthal. Currently a Senior writer at Alternet and a former fellow at the Nation Institute - Max is one of the leading American journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He’s reported on the ground from war-torn Gaza and has written a series of bestelling books on the topic - including his latest "The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza" - a must-read account of the 2014 conflict that destroyed 10,000 homes - killed 2,200 people - and displaced 300,000 others.

    For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!


  • Steve Coll, President-New America Foundation / Staff Writer-The New Yorker / Author of the new book, "Private Empire: Exxon Mobile and American Power" joins Thom Hartmann. Exxon Mobil is the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States - and yet - very little is actually known about how the company operates. How does this corporate giant really function - and how much control does it have over lawmakers in Washington? We'll pose those questions and more to Steve Coll in tonight's Conversations with Great Minds.